Marimekko Hits Shanghai With A Splash Of Color

Event At Shanghai MoCA Part Of Radical Design Week 2012

Recently, the popular Finnish textile & clothing design house Marimekko held its first fashion show at MoCA Shanghai in People’s Park as part of Radical Design Week 2012. Having made its official entrée into the Greater China market with a Hong Kong flagship this past May, the fashion show and exhibition — Design Colours Life – Contemporary Finnish Design & Marimekko — is arguably the brand’s biggest overture to mainland China to date.

Running through December 7, the event launched this past weekend with an open-air show emceed by Marimekko CEO Mika Ihamuotia. At the opening of the event, Ihamuotia expressed his determination to expand Marimekko’s presence in the mainland China market, opening 14 stores in the market by the end of 2016. With guests seated around a catwalk, Ihamuotia then introduced the renowned Jin Xing Dance Theatre, which performed a dance melding culture and design.

Jin Xing Dance Troupe (Image: Erica Ji for Jing Daily)

As Ihamuotia said in preparation for the event:

We have the great honour to be, to our knowledge, the first fashion house in the world to organize a fashion show outdoors in the splendid People’s Park in Shanghai. We did not want to present Marimekko to the Chinese through an ordinary fashion show – we wanted to create an experience connecting Marimekko’s fashion to modern dance in an unforeseen way: based on the choreography crafted by world-renowned Jin Xing and performed by talented Chinese dancers.

In my opinion, the show also makes a beautiful bridge to the exhibition Design Colours Life – Contemporary Finnish Design and Marimekko opening at the same time at MoCA. The exhibition showcases Marimekko’s design philosophy and creative culture and it also serves to pave the way for the entire Finnish design industry, being the main event of Radical Design Week.